Chad Gable did not sit there and pretend WWE had the El Grande Americano ride mapped out from day one. In fact, he pretty much said the opposite.
During an appearance on Good Karma Wrestling, Gable was asked what his reaction would have been if someone told him early on that the El Grande Americano idea would turn into the run fans ended up seeing. His answer was blunt.
“Not a chance. You know, no way. I mean, that’s the best thing one of the best things I think about wrestling, right? Is you just never know. You never know what what it is that’s going to land, what it is that the audience is going to latch onto, or why, really.”
That is where Gable pulled the curtain back a bit. He said there were a lot of moving parts behind the scenes that fans still don’t fully know about, but one obvious factor was his injury and the time he had to step away.
“And you know, when you really think about the path that we had to go on to get to that point, it would have never happened if it weren’t for so many different variables. And and someday everyone I think will become privy to like how many there actually were. There’s a lot more than people even know about. But like as something as obvious as my injury, right? And me having to go away. That if I hadn’t gotten injured, none of this would have ever taken the route that it did.”
That says a lot. Gable’s injury may have looked like a setback at the time, but in true WWE fashion, the detour helped create something fans actually grabbed onto. The El Grande Americano angle became one of those weird wrestling situations where the mess behind the curtain ended up helping the finished product. Gable said that is part of what makes wrestling work. The story does not always follow a straight line, and sometimes the best stuff comes from changing direction.
“Um and it’s just magic, man. You know, that’s what wrestling is. That’s part of what, you know, the the story is not written from the beginning. The ending isn’t determined from the beginning. It’s like we can go a million different directions and sometimes it uh it creates magic.”
Gable has been around long enough to know when something is landing, and this clearly did. The El Grande Americano story gave him a fresh lane, a new level of fan interest, and a lot more meat than the usual midcard comedy act. It also proves one thing WWE fans already know: sometimes the best creative happens when the original plan gets wrecked.
What do you think about Chad Gable saying his injury helped shape the El Grande Americano run? Was this the best thing WWE has done with him in years? Drop your thoughts in the comments and let us know.